


Wild Child

by babydolljones1104



Series: The Westons [3]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, POV First Person, Present Tense, Science Fiction, Stranger Things 3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:00:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26484556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babydolljones1104/pseuds/babydolljones1104
Summary: Life is too short. That has been Kennedy Weston's motto for nearly two years now since her parents died. Kennedy has been using her motto as an excuse to do whatever she wants, but when her latest stunt gets her into legal trouble, her aunt and uncle decide that since she's eighteen now, she needs to learn that her actions have consequences. The first step to teaching her that lesson is to make her get a job. And that's why instead of spending all summer at the pool, Kennedy is now spending her summer working at the record store at the new mall.Then Kennedy gets fired. In an effort to hide it, she still pretends to go to work every day, while in reality, she’s spending all day at Scoops Ahoy, hanging out with Steve Harrington. Until November, Kennedy had viewed Steve as her friend’s obnoxious, jock boyfriend. But something changed, and Kennedy has been wanting to be more than friends for a while.Kennedy’s summer quickly takes a turn when one of Steve’s friends picks up a Russian message on his radio. The three of them work with Steve’s coworker to translate the message, and soon they realize that translating is going to be the easiest part of everything.
Relationships: Steve Harrington/Original Character(s), Steve Harrington/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Westons [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1748674
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue

_May 4, 1985_

**KLINE’S A SWINE**

I stand back to admire my work. I’d gotten on a ladder and taken a red can of spray paint to the side of City Hall. It’s the motto of the people who have spent the last few months protesting the opening of Starcourt Mall, which is opening in a week.

Everyone’s saying that the mall is going to put the smaller stores around here out of business. While I do agree, I’m just here for the opportunity to make fun of Mayor Kline. He’s my uncle’s best friend, so I’ve met him a few times. He could stand to be brought down a peg or two.

Suddenly, a bright light comes on behind me and someone shouts, “Hawkins police! Put your hands where I can see them!”

I sigh to myself as I hold my hands up. I’m so screwed.

The drive home from the police station is silent. My aunt and uncle both came to pick me up, and that’s how I know I’m in serious trouble.

As my uncle pulls into the driveway, I see my cousin Vivian getting into her boyfriend’s Camaro across the street.

Great. Vivian is ditching me in my time of need. Normally when I’m in trouble, she can get her parents to go easy on me. But I guess she has better things to do tonight.

When we go inside, we all sit at the dining room table. Uncle Victor speaks first. “Kennedy, we have welcomed you into our home and you have constantly disrespected us."

"I didn't do anything against you guys," I argue. "I am so grateful that you guys took me in." And that’s the truth. "But the mayor-"

" _The mayor_ has been my best friend for over forty years," Uncle Vic says. "He is my most important client. If you disrespect him, you are disrespecting me."

"Are you kidding me?” I ask flatly. I know that he’s serious, and that makes this whole thing even worse.

My uncle goes on, "You're becoming a bad influence on Vivian. You and that delinquent boyfriend of hers."

I roll my eyes. My uncle has been blaming everything Vivian has done since November on Billy and me. The most annoying thing about it is that Vivian hasn’t even done anything that bad. “The worst thing Vivian has done since November is tell you that she isn’t going to law school,” I argue. And even though I know I shouldn’t, I still say, “I wouldn’t say that us helping her realize that you can’t control her forever is being a bad influence.”

“She’s throwing her life away.”

She’s not, but I ask, “So, you’re punishing me for that?”

“No. We’re punishing you because I feel like we’ve been too easy on you since you moved in with us, and that ends now.”

Aunt Kristy doesn’t say anything when she looks at my uncle. I know she thinks that he’s too hard on Vivian and me, and I don’t know why she doesn’t speak up.

“You are grounded,” He tells me. “Until the end of the summer. The only time you will be allowed to leave the house is when you are going to work."

"But I don't have a job."

"You are going to get one. Maybe it will teach you some responsibility."

"Where am I supposed to find a job? The mall is going to shut down every store in town."

"Well, maybe you can find a job at the mall.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, thank you for showing interest in this story! I've been wanting to write a story about Kennedy forever. She was originally the main character in Opposites Attract, but I couldn't make it work, so I made her a side character with the plan to do more with her character later. Now I'm finally writing her own story!
> 
> There are two things I wanted to say. So, this is the first time I'm posting a story as I write it, rather than writing the whole thing and then posting the chapters as I edit them. That means that the updates for this story are going to be even more sporadic than the updates for my other stories. Just a warning. Also, whether you came here from Opposites Attract/Over the Edge or not, while Wild Child is technically part of a series, it can be read by itself since it's following a different character than the other two books in this series are.
> 
> So, yeah, that's it. I hope you guys end up liking this story!


	2. Chapter 1

_June 28, 1985_

I glare at my reflection as I button up my polyester vest. I always thought that a record store would let its employees wear something cooler than some gross bright blue vest. I guess I was wrong. But at least the vest is the only thing they make you wear. We get to choose the rest of our outfit. Today I went with the Dr. Martens I always wear, a pair of plain blue jeans, and a t-shirt that has the cover of A Hard Day’s Night on the front.

Not that what I wear matters since I was fired two weeks ago. Vivian doesn’t know that, though, and I don’t want to tell her. So, I’ve spent the past two weeks pretending that I’m going to work every morning.

I wonder what my parents would think if they could see me right now. I have absolutely no direction in life, which is not how they’d wanted things for me. To be fair, this wasn’t exactly how I’d planned on my life turning out either.

I go downstairs and into the kitchen, where Vivian is making something with eggs. “What are you making?” I ask her.

“A frittata.”

“But it’s so early.” If I had it my way, I’d be asleep right now and wouldn’t be waking up for _at least_ another four hours.

“It’s the perfect time to make a frittata.”

I roll my eyes and grab a soda out of the fridge. “Are you going to Tina’s tonight?”

“Yeah, are you?”

I nod. “Steve’s driving me.”

Vivian glances at me over her shoulder. I know what she’s thinking. She’s wondering when the hell I’m going to tell Steve that I like him.

I’ve been wondering that, too. I can’t do it, though. As often as I talk about Vivian’s lack of emotions, I’m not much better at dealing with my own.

Looking back, I know that I’ve liked Steve for a while now, even if I only admitted it to myself in December. It took me until March to admit it to Vivian and ever since then, Vivian has been relentless in trying to get me to tell Steve how I feel.

“You don’t need to say anything,” I mutter.

“I love you,” Vivian tells me. “I just want you to be happy.”

“I am happy,” I say honestly. Still, I don’t know how to tell Vivian that I miss hanging out with her. I know that if I did, she’d feel guilty. “I’ll see you at the party.”

She doesn’t respond. She’s too busy digging through one of the utensil drawers.

In my car, I keep my vest on until I leave our neighborhood. Then I take it off, throw it in the backseat, and head to the mall.

“Let me guess, you’re looking for the dingus?”

My only response is, “How did you know?”

“He’s helping his children sneak into the movies,” Steve’s coworker Robin tells me. “Why is he friends with so many kids anyway?”

“I have no idea.” She’s right, though. Steve is friends with a lot of middle schoolers.

Steve comes out and says, “Not that having you hang around here all day isn’t fun, but I still don’t understand why you’ve been pretending to go to work for the past few weeks. Why don’t you just tell Vivian you got fired? It’s not like she’s going to judge you.”

“Because I’m technically grounded right now,” I answer. “The only time I’m allowed to be out of the house is when I’m at work.”

“But why are you hiding it from Vivian? She’s not going to tell your uncle.”

Not that she could even if she wanted to. My aunt and uncle are on a cruise and won’t be back for three weeks.

“Vivian doesn’t need to know. What I really need to do is start looking for a new job, anyway. Are you guys hiring?”

That’s when a group of younger girls walks in. “I’m ready for some samples,” One of them announces.

Robin sighs as she tells me, “You don’t want to work here. Trust me, the customers are the worst.”

“I’m good with customers,” I argue.

“You were fired from the record store for yelling at a customer,” Steve points out.

He’s right. A woman was yelling at me because we didn’t have the record she wanted. I tried to tell her that it wasn’t being released until August, but she kept yelling like it was going to magically make a copy appear. So, I started yelling back. “In my defense, I only started yelling after she started insulting me personally.”

“Yeah, that’s always fun,” He mutters.

“People take their ice cream seriously around here,” Robin tells me. “You’d think it’s a life or death matter.”

“Maybe I should work somewhere where I don’t have to deal with any customers,” I say slowly.

“If you find a place that’s hiring, please let me know,” Robin begs. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

Steve and I go into the back room, where he tells me, “I’m working for an extra half hour tonight, so I’ll probably pick you up somewhere around eight-thirty.”

“That’s fine. It’s not like I’ve got anything else going on. My schedule is totally open.”

“Do you know if Vivian is coming alone?”

I laugh. “Please. She and Billy do everything together. It would be weird if he _wasn’t_ there.”

“I just hate having to deal with him.”

“He leaves you alone.”

“Only because Vivian told him to.”

“After what he did to you in November, I think you should be glad that he leaves you alone no matter what the reason is,” I tell Steve honestly. I still can’t believe how bad he looked after he lost that fight with Billy.

“I don’t understand how Vivian could be with someone like him. They’re nothing alike.”

I don’t say anything. I actually like Billy. He loves Vivian, and for the first time in my cousin’s life, she’s happy. And even though I know that Steve meant that they’re nothing alike as in Vivian is usually nice and ‘nice’ isn’t a word anyone would ever use to describe Billy, his statement still reminds me of why we would never work out. Steve and I couldn’t be more different from each other. Vivian and Billy somehow make it work, but two people who are nothing alike being able to make it work is a rare thing. But things don’t work out for me very often, and I’d rather stay friends with Steve than risk ruining everything.

I get home a few minutes after five. Vivian is still at work, so she won’t be around to ask why I’m home an hour before my shift is supposed to end.

I go into the kitchen and look through the fridge, wishing that for once, Vivian would eat some of the stuff she cooks. I even can’t pronounce the names for half of this stuff.

I settle on a piece of the frittata she made this morning, and after heating it up I sit down in the living room and grab my sketchbook from its spot on the coffee table. I’ve been sketching a lot of outfit ideas lately, but I haven’t had a lot of time to actually make something of these ideas yet.

I thought that I’d have more free time after being fired, but pretending to have a job feels like more work than actually having one.

At eight o’clock, I’m still sketching and listening to the tv in the background. I’m about to get up and start getting ready for the party when the power suddenly goes out. “Come on,” I mutter as I get up from the couch. I hope that Vivian’s parents didn’t forget to pay the power bill before going on their cruise. But when I get up and look out the window, I realize that the entire street is out of power.

The power is only off for a minute or two before everything comes back on. “That was weird.” But I don’t think too much of it as I go upstairs to get ready.

When Steve picks me up half an hour later, he asks, “Did the power go out here?”

I nod. “I thought my aunt and uncle forgot to pay the bill for a second. That would have been a nightmare.”

“They don’t come back for a few weeks, right?”

“July eighteenth.”

“So, it’s just you and Vivian at home?”

“Yeah, but she’s going up to the cabin with Billy tomorrow.” I don’t add that Vivian doesn’t even come home some nights. These days, I spend more time at home than she does.

“What cabin?”

“My parents had a cabin a couple of hours away,” I explain. “Since they left everything to me, it’s mine now.” I used to go up there sometimes after they died, but that last time I went was almost a year ago. “Anyway, you know how sometimes Vivian and Billy both disappear for a couple of days? That’s where they go.”

“Vivian is full of surprises.”

“Not really. I think she’d be a lot different if her dad wasn’t such a control freak.” And now that she’s finally realizing her dad can’t control her forever, she’s starting to become the person she really is. I get it. I understand completely. Even though my parents weren’t as controlling as Vivian’s dad, my parents had a certain life planned for me. And it was very different from the one I’m living now. Who I was then and who I am now are two completely different people.

Even though I’m happy most of the time, I still wonder if my parents would be disappointed, or if they would have accepted that I don’t want to do things their way. But it doesn’t matter. It wouldn’t even if they were alive. I know that life is too short to live for others. The problem is that for the first time, I’m not sure how I want to live my life.


	3. Chapter 2

It’s past nine-thirty when I see Vivian coming through the front door with Billy. “It’s about time you guys got here,” I say as I walk over.

“I only got off work an hour ago,” Vivian responds. “I wasn’t going to come to a party looking like a secretary.”

I’m pretty sure the reason she and Billy are just getting here now isn’t only because Vivian was changing her clothes, but I know better than to say anything.

“Is Steve here?” She asks me. “It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve seen him.”

“That sounds great,” Billy says. “Why would you complain about that?”

She glares at him. “Because he’s my friend.”

I tell Vivian, “He’s out back talking to some guys from the basketball team.”

“Isn’t it kind of weird that he’s at a high school party even though he’s not in high school anymore?” Billy asks.

“You and I aren’t in high school anymore either,” I point out.

He puts his arm around Vivian. “Yeah, but I came here with Viv. What’s your excuse?”

“Tina asked us to come.”

“So, did you guys come here together?” Vivian asks slowly.

“He drove me here, if that’s what you mean.” I know it’s not what she means.

Sure enough, Vivian tells me, “It’s not.”

“If there was any progress in my love-life, do you think I would have waited this long to bring it up?”

“No,” She answers after a moment.

“I don’t get why you haven’t said anything to him,” Billy says. “Normally you’re not scared of anything.”

“I’m not scared,” I lie.

Vivian knows me well enough to know when I’m lying, but she doesn’t call me out on it. She just asks, “Then what is it?”

“I don’t know.” I do know the problem, but I don’t know how to explain it. I hate rejection and I always have. But with Steve, rejection isn’t even the main issue. Even if by some miracle he did like me back and we did get together, I’m scared of breaking up and then not even having him as a friend. “Do you guys think I should tell him?” I ask, even though Vivian has told me every day for almost four months now that I should tell Steve.

Vivian shrugs. “You know that I know nothing about guys.”

Given that the only advice she’s ever given me is to ‘just tell him already’, I know that’s the best answer she’s going to be able to give me.

Billy looks at her. “You’re not as clueless as you pretend to be.”

“Thanks,” She says, glaring at him.

“That’s a good thing.”

“Maybe for you,” I mutter.

Vivian turns back to me and asks, “What’s the worst that could happen if you tell Steve you like him?”

Is she serious? “He would know that I like him,” I say slowly. Vivian is even worse at talking about her feelings than I am, so she should understand this.

Billy laughs and Vivian smacks him on the arm. She does that a lot, and I’m surprised he lets her get away with it. Billy Hargrove is the kind of person who doesn’t take _anything_ from _anyone._ But it’s clear that to him, my cousin isn’t just anyone.

She’s still looking at me as she says, “Right, but besides that.”

I decide to be honest. “If he knows and he doesn’t feel the same way, our entire friendship would be ruined.”

“Maybe he’ll like you back,” She says with a shrug.

“Vivi, you know how I feel about false hope.” After my parents' car accident, the doctors told me that both of my parents were going to be ok. But my mom had already died twice in the ambulance and was on her way to dying for a third and final time. My dad was already been considered a lost cause at the point, too.

“It’s not false hope,” Vivian argues. “Statistically speaking, there’s a fifty-fifty chance of things going either way. He either likes you or he doesn’t.”

“You have a terrifying way of simplifying things,” I tell her honestly. I will never understand how she’s able to go through life viewing things the way she does, like numbers on a spreadsheet. Sometimes the lack of emotion scares me, and sometimes I’m jealous of it. I almost ask her what the chances of ruining things completely are, but I’m sure she’ll have an actual answer for that and I don’t want to hear it.

She goes on, “Besides, you’re the one who’s always saying that life is too short to not go after what you want. So, go after what you want.”

I have to admit, she does have a point there. That is what I’ve been saying for nearly two years now.

“I will.” Eventually, anyway. I hold up my cup. “I’ll see you guys later. I’m going to get more beer.” I don’t wait for a response before walking off.

I know that Vivian is right and that I should just get it over with and tell Steve, but for the first time in my life, the idea that someone might not like me scares me.

Steve and I leave the party around two in the morning, and I’m starting to think that maybe staying out so late and drinking so much when Vivian thinks I have work early tomorrow morning is a bad idea.

One would think I would have learned my lesson about drinking too much after Halloween, but I guess I didn’t.

Luckily, I didn’t drink as much as I had then, so I’m not acting like a _complete_ idiot. I am, however, drunk enough to say things I normally wouldn’t be brave enough to say. So, when Steve drops me off at home I tell him, “Since Vivian’s going to be gone tomorrow night, you should come over.”

“Really?”

I nod. “We could hang out for a few hours. Order take out and watch a movie or something.”

“It does sound better than going home and watching tv by myself,” Steve says. “I get off work at the same time tomorrow, so I can be here at eight-thirty again.”

“That sounds good.”

I get out of the car, and I’m about to close the door when Steve asks, “How come you’ve never asked me to come over before?”

I don’t know how to explain that I’ve been too nervous, even though hanging out at each other’s house is something friends do all the time, so I just say, “I don’t know.”

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Probably not until tomorrow night,” I tell him. “If my hangover is as bad as I think it’s going to be, I probably won’t go to the mall tomorrow. I’ll tell Vivian that someone wanted to switch shifts or something.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow night, then.”

“I can’t wait.” I close the door and go inside. For the first time this summer, I actually have something to look forward to.


	4. Chapter 3

_June 29, 1985_

It’s close to noon when I wake up on Saturday, and I’m too lazy to even entertain the possibility of going to the mall. Besides, the weekends at the mall are a nightmare.

I know that Vivian is going to the cabin tonight, so I get the key out of my nightstand and leave it in her room. I heard her leave a few hours ago, probably to tutor the middle schooler she works with on the weekends.

I can’t help grinning as I put the key on her nightstand. I have the whole day, and the whole house, to myself.

I decide to spend the day working on some of the outfit ideas I’ve been thinking of recently, so I get some of the fabric I bought last week and sit down in front of my sewing machine.

It’s late in the afternoon and I’m working on a lace skirt when Vivian knocks on my bedroom door. “Come in,” I call.

She walks in and asks me, “Which earrings do you think I should wear tonight?”

I’m still focused on my sewing when I answer, “I doubt Billy’s going to be too focused on your earrings.”

Vivian tries to sound annoyed, although I can hear her laughing a bit when she tells me, “Just pick.”

I turn to look at her and the two pairs of earrings she’s holding. “I’d go with the studs,” I tell her after a moment.

“That’s what I thought.” She sits down on the bed as she says, “I didn’t know you had today off. I would have asked you to come to the pool with me.”

“You weren’t tutoring that girl?”

“One of her friends came back from summer camp today, so I had today off from that. When’s your next day off? Maybe I’ll call in sick and we can do something.”

“I’m not sure yet, I’ll have to let you know.” I don’t want to keep talking about the job I don’t have anymore, so I change the subject. “What time is Billy picking you up?”

“He’s not. We’re not going to the cabin until Wednesday now.”

“How come?”

“I have to go to Indianapolis tomorrow. Mayor Kline-”

At the mention of Kline’s name, I can’t stop myself from saying, “Gross.”

Vivian laughs. “I know. But he wants me to pick something up from my dad’s office tomorrow.”

I don’t know what the hell Vivian is doing working for Mayor Kline. She has to have the weirdest job in the world. All she does is drive documents back and forth between her dad and the mayor. Besides that, I’ve seen her paychecks. She’s getting paid a ridiculous amount of money for such a simple job. “So, what are you doing tonight?” I ask her. If she’s going to be here tonight then I’ll have to cancel my plans with Steve, which I definitely don’t want to do.

“We’re meeting at a motel.”

Even though I would never wish it upon Vivian, I'd love to see her dad's face if he found out about that. But all I say is, “Should I be worried?”

“About?”

“Your boyfriend taking you to a motel. I mean, that’s how a lot of slasher movies begin.”

“I feel like there’s more than take place in cabins in the middle of the woods,” She argues.

“Fair enough.” I pause before asking, “And you’re going to be gone all night?”

“That’s the plan.”

I try to keep my voice calm when I say, “Cool.”

“Why do you want me gone tonight?” Vivian asks, studying my face.

“I don’t.”

She just stares at me.

I sigh. “Fine. Steve is coming over.” Vivian smiles, and I quickly tell her, “We’re just hanging out as friends.”

“Yeah, but it’s a step forward.”

She’s right. “I still can’t believe I asked him to come over,” I admit. “I was kind of drunk, which is the only reason I was able to do it.”

“Not as drunk as you were on Halloween, right?”

“No.”

Vivian laughs. “Good. You were a real pain that night.” She’s quiet for a moment before telling me, “You know, I’m going to miss being able to talk to you all the time when you move out.”

“What are you talking about? I’m not going anywhere.”

“I just figured that since you’re eighteen now, you’ll get tired enough of my dad that you leave soon.”

“Vivi, I am never going to leave you here. Leaving you to deal with your dad by yourself would be the worst thing I could do. I’m not moving out until you do.”

“That’s why you’re my favorite cousin,” Vivian tells me with a grin.

Vivian leaves a few minutes after seven-thirty, and Steve comes over an hour later. I know that I’m way more nervous than I should be. I don’t overthink things very often, but I’m definitely overthinking this.

As I lead Steve into the kitchen, I ask, “Did I miss anything interesting today?”

“No, nothing interesting happened. It was actually kind of boring.”

“Well, I’m glad I didn’t miss anything fun.”

“I think I’ve gotten used to having you around,” Steve tells me. “I missed not having you there.”

“I did miss hanging out with you,” I admit. “But it was also nice to spend the whole day doing nothing. Maybe I should tell Vivian I got fired. Then I’d be able to spend more days like this.” I shrug as I add, “At least until my aunt and uncle come back.” Realistically, I know that I need to start looking for a new job. I probably should have the day I got fired from the record store. According to my uncle, the whole point of making me get a job is to teach me to be more mature. I doubt that hiding the fact that I was fired two weeks ago and that I’ve been hanging out at the mall all day every day would prove my maturity to my uncle. Not that I care what he thinks, but I feel like he might go easier on me if I pretend that this whole thing has taught me something. In the kitchen, I open the junk drawer and pull out the takeout menus. “Pizza or Chinese?”

At ten-thirty, Steve and I are watching a movie and still working on the pizza we ordered when Vivian comes in through the garage and goes upstairs without saying anything to Steve or me.

Something is obviously wrong with her, and I tell Steve, “I’ll be right back.” I go upstairs and knock on Vivian’s bedroom door.

“What?” She asks sharply.

“Vivi, are you ok?”

“I’m fine.”

“Can I come in?”

There’s a pause before she says, “Sure.” When I open the door, she’s sitting on her bed, taking her boots off too violently for me to think everything’s ok.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Billy stood me up. We were supposed to meet at eight, but he never came.”

“Did you call him? Maybe he-”

Vivian glares at me. “Of course I did, I’m not an idiot.”

I know I’m not the one she’s mad at, so I try to resist the urge to punch her when I say, “I didn’t say you are.”

She sighs. “I’m sorry. I just- I don’t even know how I feel, honestly. I don’t know if I should be mad or upset.”

“Do you need me to kill him?”

“Let me talk to him first.”

I wonder what Vivian is going to say to Billy. She’s one of those people who’s capable of destroying someone with only a few words, and she seems mad enough to do that right now. Even though I want to keep hanging out alone with Steve, I feel like it would be rude if I didn’t ask, “Do you want to come downstairs? We have pizza.”

Vivian shakes her head, and it’s obvious that she’s more hurt than she’s letting on when she quietly says, “I’m just gonna go to bed.”

“I’m here if you need to talk,” I tell her before leaving.

I feel bad for Vivian. Billy is her first boyfriend, and until now, he’s been the perfect boyfriend. Vivian has no experience with guys treating her like shit.

“Is she ok?” Steve asks when I sit back down next to him.

“Billy stood her up.”

“That sucks.”

I look at him. “But?”

He shrugs. “I know that Vivian is completely in love with him and that he’s your friend and everything, but I’m surprised it took him this long to screw up.”

“I remember that you screwed up with Nancy like, three days after you guys started dating.”

“I was a real jerk back then,” He admits.

“Yeah, you were. I’m glad you’re different now.”

“Me too. So, what about you? When was the soonest you screwed up in one of your relationships?”

“You know I haven’t had a boyfriend.”

“Right, but I mean, back in New York.”

“I never had a boyfriend there, either,” I tell him.

“Really?”

“My parents didn’t let me date.” And while I’ve been with a lot of guys in Hawkins, I haven’t actually dated any of them.

Steve slowly says, “But you’re-”

“A slut?”

“I wasn’t going to say that.”

“Everyone else does,” I say with a shrug.

“I wasn’t going to say that,” He tells me again. “I’m just surprised.” There's a pause before he asks, "Do you like anyone?"

I hesitate before admitting, “Actually, there is someone I like, but I don’t think he feels the same way.”

Steve looks at me. “Who is it?”

I immediately regret bringing it up at all, and I tell him, “It doesn’t matter.”

He watches me for a second before saying, “You know, Robin said something interesting last night.”

“What did she say?”

“She thinks that you like me and that I should ask you out.”

I have no idea how Robin figured it out. Besides Vivian, I haven’t told anyone.

When I don’t respond, Steve asks, “What would you say?”

“If you asked me out?”

He nods.

“Are you asking me out?” I ask slowly.

“That depends on if you’d say yes.”

“You already know my answer, don’t you?”

“Don’t tell Robin that I said this, but she hasn’t been wrong once this summer.”

I can’t help laughing as I say, “Well, she’s right.” Then I finally admit, “If you asked me out, I’d say yes.”

“Do you want to go out?” Steve asks me.

I grin. “Yes.”

“How about after I get off work tomorrow night?”

“Yes,” I say again.


	5. Author's Note

I know everyone probably thought this was an update, and I'm sorry! But I'm posting this on all my stories because I know it's been a while since I've updated most of them, and I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm not abandoning any of my stories.  
I have multiple chronic illnesses, and I was somehow lucky enough to spend most of the year we've been in a world-wide pandemic without too many health issues. Then in October all of my illnesses decided to act up at once, and it got even worse in November. I'm finally starting to feel better (although that could change), so I'm hoping that I'll be able to get back to my writing soon!


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